To say that I have sensory overload might be to say that the Yankees are a bunch of overpaid crybabies. What I've seen and done in the last two days could fill a novel...and the tour doesn't officially start for another three hours.On Tuesday night, after walking around the older area of Bangkok and shopping (and eating!) in a big department store called Central for several hours, the four of us met up with one of David's old college buddies, Pooh, for dinner at the Oriental Hotel. The Oriental Hotel is where Joseph Conrad wrote Heart of Darkness.
I don't remember the name of the restaurant, but it was next to the spa, which is across the river. That's right. After having a round of drinks in the hotel, we took a ferry across the river.
Dinner was accompanied by a Thai dinner show. The food was great.We ran out before the show ended to meet up with my friend Raj from my University of Richmond days. Raj grew up in Bangkok and moved back here after college.
We met up with him and his beautiful wife of three years, Rupa, at our Hotel and then we went out to a club called Bed Supperclub, which has to be the swankiest club in Bangkok. We were about to pay the 1000 Baht entrance fee (about $33), but Raj negotiated a better deal for us. He got us in the club for free, we just had to buy a bottle of whiskey. A whole bottle of whiskey.
They took us up to the reserved "bed" section, hooked us up with our bottle of booze, and we proceeded to have a great time.When we finally went home, I crashed on the bed and passed out with my clothes still on.
I woke up the next morning, not hung over, but with the distinct feeling that I had been very drunk the last time I was conscious.
We had a leisurely Wednesday morning. We woke up, took showers, and watched some TV. After a long breakfast at a neighborhood cafe, we checked out of our hotel and took a taxi cross town to go to our new hotel, the one where our tour started.
We checked into our new room and before heading out in search of food and adventure, took the elevator up to the roof on the 24th floor for a look around. Our hotel is one of the tallest buildings in this part of Bangkok, so we could see the whole city.
It turned out we had a great afternoon. A Thai man named Peter came up to us on the street and offered to show us around town. He even showed us his official tour guide badge. He didn't start negotiating at first, but we eventually agreed that he would take us around town for 400 Baht (about $12).
I'm going to have to go through a tour guide to double check all the names, but we went to three temples (maybe four, I'm not sure if one place counted as one or two), a park that used to be an old prison, and we had our first taste of street food.Oh, and we drank a few beers. What can I say? It was hot!